German Cops Combat Kiddie Porn

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German Cops Combat Kiddie Porn

German police said on Monday they have found 368 instances of child pornography on the Internet so far this year with the help of a new squad dedicated to surfing the Web looking for illegal activity.

The BKA Federal Criminal Police Office predicted a big rise in Internet crime detection during the rest of 1999 and urged online service providers to help them.

"We're through the launch phase and will now start to run on full steam," said Leo Schuster, a BKA director heading the 20-strong unit.

Schuster said the child porn cases, a focus of the squad's work so far, have been passed on to local and international police forces for further investigation. It is not yet known how many will come to trial.

Schuster said police could not force online service providers to cooperate in preventing the sale of indecent images of children on the Internet, but urged them to make a voluntary declaration that they were at least aware of the problem.

Besides child pornography, the squad looks for instances of political extremism – a sensitive subject in Germany – as well as commercial fraud. Investigators have identified 96 extremist sites from both the left and the right that are illegal under German law.

Officers contact the offending sites using nicknames, a common practice among Internet users, but do not engage in covert operations such as entering into illegal porn trades in the hunt for distributors.

Police said the unit expects to branch out from its current focus on porn detection into other fields of Internet crime that are expected to become a growing problem with the spread of electronic commerce.

One young officer, examining a Web site offering access to photographs titled "Teenie" and "Redhead," said, "We don't just look for child pornography. If I spent all my time doing that, I'd go mad."

Canada, France, Italy, Britain, the United States, Japan, and Russia have established similar Internet squads.

Schuster said international cooperation against Internet crime was already improving with progress being made by the European Union, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, and Interpol.

The biggest worldwide bust of online pedophiles occurred last September when more than 40 people were arrested in 12 countries.

Police said the squad's activities had no hope of wiping out crime on the Internet but that its sweeps would act as a deterrent. "It's like a squad car coming around the corner," said BKA spokesman Norbert Unger.